and the sheep follow him.” (Jn. 10:4)
Good Shepherd Sunday
4th Sunday of Easter,
April 21, 2013,
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A reading
from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory
to you, Lord.
Jesus said: “I tell you
the truth: the man who does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs in
some other way, is a thief and a robber. But the man who enters through the
gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper
opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as the shepherd calls his own sheep
by name and leads them out. When he has brought them , he walks up front, and
the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not
follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize
the voice of strangers. My sheep recognize my voice; I
know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. No one shall snatch them out of my Father’s
hand. I and the Father are one.” (Jn. 10:1-5, 27-30)
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord
Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
A good
shepherd walks upfront.
The fourth Sunday is always Good Shepherd Sunday. The gospel for the fourth Sunday in all three liturgical cycles of A, B
and C is from the 10th chapter of John, which is a long
disquisition on the various qualities of a good shepherd. Among those qualities is upfront shepherding:
a good shepherd walks upfront, and his sheep gladly follow him because they
recognize his voice. (Jn. 10:4) The same upfront shepherding is indicated in verse 27:
“My sheep
listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (Jn. 10:27)
An upfront shepherd does not lead the sheep by directives,
commands or threats. Rather, he leads the sheep by being so attractive that the
sheep are willingly drawn to follow the shepherd. An upfront shepherd does not
drive the sheep from behind but draws them as he walks upfront.
A pope
who walked upfront as a good shepherd
In
that world kneeling at his bedside was
Australian writer Morris L. West (1916-1999), famous especially for his books The Devil’s Advocate and The Shoes of the Fisherman. Though
West was and always remained a Catholic, his various writings contained an amount of criticism of the Church, and the Church
was not always pleased with him.
West was, however, a sheep who lovingly knew the good shepherd, Pope John. In
a little volume entitled A View from the
Ridge he writes,
I
believe I can say with certainty that I remained in communion with the Church
even when the Church itself excluded me, and I remain there still, principally
because of the presence of John XXIII, the
Good Shepherd, whom I never met, though I did meet his predecessor and his
successor. Goodness went out from this man to me. I acknowledged it then. I
acknowledge it again. We had had a surfeit of princes and politicians and
theologians – even of conventional saints. We needed a man who spoke the
language of the heart. We had John too briefly.
A bishop who walked upfront as a good
shepherd
Bishop Kenneth Untener (1937- 2004) was shepherd of the Diocese of
Saginaw from 1980 until his death in 2004. Bishop Untener was
indeed a beloved shepherd who walked upfront and the sheep gladly ran after
him. His first words as bishop to the people of Saginaw were: "My name is
Ken, and I will be your waiter for a long, long time.” Then he sold the bishop's mansion, and proceeded to live in 69 rectories over the next
24 years.
His office was the
trunk of his car.
The year 1993 was
the twenty-fifth anniversary of Pope Paul VI's encyclical letter Humanae
vitae (1968), which reaffirmed the Church's stand against artificial birth
control. Bishop Untener invited the
Church to use the occasion to start a new, honest and open discussion on birth
control. His invitation displeased Rome, and so Untener never climbed higher on
the ecclesiastical ladder; he died `a simple bishop.’ The faithful, on
the other hand, thought differently: his funeral Mass was attended by 1,800
grateful sheep, and the service evoked tears and laughter, audible
"amens" and a standing ovation.
A chaplain
in combat boots who walked upfront as a good shepherd
America traditionally bestows the Medal of Honor on those who
display uncommon valor on the battlefield. But sometimes heroism doesn’t use a
weapon. This past Thursday, April 11, President Obama awarded the Medal of
Honor to Fr. Emil Joseph Kapaun (April 20,
1916 – May 23, 1951), a US Army chaplain who gave his life for his fellow prisoners
in a Korean POW camp. Kapaun’s story is one of self-sacrifice so noble that
surviving vets still speak of him with great awe. And the Vatican is
considering making him a saint. In captivity, he gave away his own rations and
stole grain to feed others. He picked lice off men too weak to do so themselves.
He traded his watch for a blanket which he cut up to make socks for those whose
feet were freezing. He defied his Communist captors by saying Mass on Easter.
He succumbed to the effects of starvation and neglect in 1951 at age 35, and
was buried in a mass grave. At the moment of their liberation, Fr. Kapaun’s
fellow prisoners began a campaign for this Medal of Honor, but his story eventually
was forgotten until some in Congress recently began pressing his case. President
Obama put it well at Thursday’s ceremony. Fr. Kapaun was “an American soldier
who didn’t fire a gun” yet carried “the mightiest weapon of all: the love for
his brothers so powerful that he was willing to die so that they might live.”
A
pope who walks upfront as a good shepherd
Pope
Francis, when he was Archbishop
of Buenos Aires walked upfront of his flock when
he daily took the bus to work. That’s shepherding without saying a word.
Pope Francis walked upfront of his flock when he paid his own hotel bill in
Rome, right after he was elected pope. That’s shepherding without saying a
word. Pope Francis walked upfront of his flock when he chose a very simple
place to live, instead of the papal apartments. That’s shepherding without saying
a word. Pope Francis walked upfront when on Easter Sunday in St. Peter’s Square he stopped the pope mobile
so that he could embrace and kiss little Dominic Gondreau. That indeed was
powerful upfront-shepherding without saying a word, and the story and the
picture of Pope Francis hugging and kissing Dominic went viral.
Conclusion
Good Shepherd Sunday
Good
Pope John, Bp. Untener, Fr. Kapuam, Pope Francis are all good shepherds. They
were not in the back driving the sheep; rather they were upfront drawing the
sheep. Good Shepherd Sunday is not only
about popes, bishops and priests; it’s about all of us who sooner or later are
called to shepherd others by walking up front, by leading them into green
pastures. 
